Alex was featured on the picture for one of the updates from Conf USA. You can tell it is her as you can see the “C” on her arm. She swam with “JC” on her arm every meet of the season to honor her friend and swimmer Jose Cerda who we lost a little over a year ago. Unfortunately, she was not able to do the same at Conf USA due to rules against marking on the arm.

Yesterday, was the final day of Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships. Alex swam the 100 Free in Prelims. She swam a 53.61. That was a season best, but fell short of her goal (52 – 51) and lifetime best (52.70). Still it was the fastest Marshall time and she finished 21st over all.

She swam in Finals as part of the 400 Free Relay. She swam the 2nd leg in a 53.41. She had the fastest split of all Marshall swimmers. They finished 4th after two other relays were DQ’d.

One interesting note was they had timing pads on the blocks, so they were recording reaction times (how fast the swimmer gets off the blocks). Alex had the 2nd fastest reaction time of all swimmers across all the teams competing in the 400 Free Relay. in fact her reaction time off blocks was always one of the fastest for each of her events.

So now it is time to head home from Alex’s 1st every conference championship meet in her college career. While she didn’t attain all her goals, she swam well overall.

Alex swam the 100 Back in Prelims. She swam a 58.82, which was a season best. It was not her PB though as she went 58.20 last year during high school champs. She finished 17th overall… 1st alternate for Finals! So close, but yet so far from making it to Finals. Still that time makes her the 3rd fastest back stroke swimmer in Marshall history.

Alex, also, swam on the 200 Free Relay in finals. She swam the 2nd leg and recorded a 23.73 split a season and lifetime best swim for her. Her first sub-24 second swim in the 50 Free (relay or individual swim). That was the fastest time of the Marshall swimmers on the relay. The relay finished 6th out of 6, but they were missing a couple faster sprinters. All in all the team did well and finished the day 5th in overall score.

Alex will be competing at the Conference USA Swimming Championships this week in Houston: Feb. 15-18.

Alex’s events:

Thursday: 50 Free, seeded 31st

Friday: 100 Back, seeded 23rd; 200 Free Relay

Saturday: 100 Free, seeded 24th; 400 Free Relay

Each team only gets one relay entry. Alex will be swimming on both of the Free Relays at Finals. Top 16 qualify for Finals, so based on Alex’s seeding she will need some good swims to make Finals individually.

This is a late entry, but Alex and Taylor did compete at the Ohio 2011 High School State Swimming Championships this year. This year was quite interesting as we had a major snow storm the morning of the prelims. It snowed enough that all the local schools were closed, but the competition went on in the pool. This was a particular problem for our girls who had a nerve racking 10 mile drive from the hotel. Their van got stuck repeatedly. This resulted in them getting out and pushing the van and late arrival to the competition. That said, it did not set us up for the best results. Still the girls got in the pool and did their best.

Alex Dschaak: 100 Backstroke – 24th, 100 Freestyle – 14th

Taylor Dschaak: 100 Butterfly – 19th

They were both on the 400 Freestyle Relay that advanced to finals, but it was disqualified when one of the swimmers left the blocks too early on the transition.

This last weekend was the Ohio Southwest District Championship Meet. Here they are sporting the 7 medals they earned.

Saturday night they swam for Loveland High School in the 200 & 400 Freestyle Relays. In the individual events Taylor swam in the 200 Freestyle and 100 Butterfly with Alex swimming the 100 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke. Top 4 in each event are guaranteed a spot at the State Meet. It gets a little complicated after that as each district gets a certain number of guaranteed slots (it varies by district). At large qualifiers are then based on time to fill our 24 entries per event.

You will see both girls have “JC” on their arms. They wore Jose Cerda’s initials to honor and remember their friend and Cincinnati Marlin teammate who died earlier this year.

Here is a recap of the swims in order of how they were swum at the meet. I apologize that the videos are occasionally obstructed as there were three rows of high school kids in front of me and they were not exactly considerate of when I was video taping.

200 Freestyle

Taylor swam in the 2nd to last heat coming in as the 16th seed. She went into the event wanting to break the 2 minute mark. Well, she swam a lifetime best and shattered the 2 minute mark with a 1:57.65. A new Loveland High School record! That placed her 4th in her heat and 15th overall. While it was a great swim, it was not quite fast enough to qualify her for State.

100 Butterfly

After getting a break while the 200 IM was swam Taylor swam the 100 Butterfly. She was swimming in the 2nd to last heat as she came in to the meet as the 12th seed. She swam a 1:01.66 at the Sectional meet which was off her personal best time of 58.54 and slower than the Sectional meet time from the previous year. I really had no idea what to expect other than that she dropped almost 2 seconds between Sectionals and Districts last year. She went out fast and led this one from start to finish, but being in the slower heat I wasn’t sure what her time was going to be. Well, she crushed her heat and swam a lifetime best 57.93. That was good enough for 6th overall and a trip to State as the 16th seed.

100 Freestyle

After a long wait, an hour and a half after the competition started it was time for Alex to swim the 100 Freestyle. She was swimming in the Championship heat as the #6 seed. In the last heat they announce each swimmer and their top accomplishments, which makes for even more time to wait to swim. She wanted to go under 52 seconds and break the Loveland High School record, so all this time you could see she was nervous thinking about what she wanted to accomplish. She went out and swam a lifetime best 52.70 and finished7th overall. That was good enough for a 15th seed at State. Still I know she was not happy with the swim. She did not achieve her goal. The good thing is she will get another shot at it this weekend.

200 Free Relay

Alex and Taylor were swimming this relay together. At the Sectional meet Alex was on this relay, but Taylor swam the 200 Medley Relay. That meant they came in seeded 13th and were swimming in the 2nd to last hear. For this meet Coach Ketchum had all his talent together, so expectations were for a much better placing. Alex led off (as she told Coach Ketchum she would after the Sectional Meet). She went out fast and got the team a solid lead. Dani Wheeler held the lead followed by Taylor who built the lead some more before Hailey closed it out with convincing win of the heat. Their time was good enough for 5th overall and a 13th seed at State.

100 Backstroke

Alex’s final individual event. She went in seeded 9th after swimming a relatively slow swim at Sectionals – 1:02.08 after winning this event at FAVC Championship meet with a 1:00.78. This put her in the 2nd to last heat. I really had no expectation for how she would swim this event other than she swam a lifetime best in the 100 Free and her 24.36 split in the 200 Free Relay was faster than last week. Well, no worries here. She led from start to finish winning her heat in another lifetime best time of 58.20. Good enough for 6th overall and a 12th seed at State.

400 Free Relay

Last but not least was the 400 Freestyle Relay. They came in seeded 5th swimming the same four girls as at Sectionals. This means they were swimming in the Championship heat with some of the fastest girls in the state. They swam the same order as Sectionals as well. Taylor lead off with a lifetime best 54.75. Hailey was next with a 52.91. Kate, a freshman, swam 3rd and turned in a split almost 2 seconds faster than last week. Alex swam anchor and brought it home with a 52.70 split. Their 3:35.58 time was good enough for 5th and shattered the Loveland High School record by 3 seconds!

Last night Loveland High School swimmers competed in the conference championship swim meet. Alex & Taylor swam in 2 relays and 2 individual events each. Alex was the FACV Champion in the 100 Backstroke!

200 Medley Relay

The night started off with the girls swimming in the 200 Medley Relay together. Alex led off in the backstroke leg and Taylor finished swimming the freestyle leg. Alex led of with a 28.89 split putting the team in a very close 2nd place (.01 seconds behind the leader).When Taylor entered the water the team was in 3rd. She swam a 25.59 split to hold 3rd place overall.

200 Freestyle

Taylor’s 1st event was the 200 Freestyle. She was swimming in the final heat of six heats as the number 3 seed. She was in a 3 way battle for 3rd going into the last 10 yards. It was very close but the other two girls managed to get to the wall ahead of her and she finished 5th overall with a 2:02.20. That was her best time of the season as she had been consistently swimming in the 2:04 range.

50 Freestyle

Alex swam the 50 Free as her first individual event. She went into the event as the number 2 seed of 56 swimmers competing. She swam a season best 24.83 and first time under 25 seconds this season for a 3rd place finish.

100 Freestyle

Taylor swam the 100 Free for her 2nd and last individual event (high school swimmers are limited to 2 individual events per meet). She entered the event the #3 seed of 56 swimmers competing. She had not swam this event all season other than as a part of the 400 Free Relay where she was swimming 57 second splits. She took 3rd with a 56.38 which was a good second faster than her previous relay swims and definitely her fastest of the season.

100 Backstroke

Alex was swimming the 100 Back for her final event. This is not an event she had swam all the much. At the Southwest Classic she swam a 1:03 and did not qualify for finals. I know she said then that in practice she had not spent much time on backstroke, so her confidence and comfort in the event was not real high. Well, she got off to a good start and led from start. Molly was close all the way into the finish. I was confident she had it, but I could hear a couple of people near me getting worried which made me get nervous. Alex won it with a 1:00.68 with her best time of the season earning her the FAVC Championship in the 100 Backstroke.

400 Free Relay

Final event of the night is the 400 Free Relay. This time Taylor would be leading off and Alex would be swimming the anchor leg (the later the better since she had swam the 100 Back not all that long ago). Taylor had a great lead off leg with a 56.38 (same time as her 100 Free swim earlier) which had the relay in a virtual tie after the first 100. Hailey swam next and built a slight lead with Kate (a freshman) following her. Kate gave up the lead and was about a full body length behind when she hit the wall. This put Alex in the position of chasing. Something that she does very well. She closed the gap in the first 50 and was only slightly behind going into the final 50. She could not close that final gap over the last 50 as she finished with a 54.00 split and 2nd overall. That was her best split of the season- a fulls 1.5 seconds faster than anything previously.

Alex and Taylor competed for Loveland High School at the Ohio High School State meet this last weekend. The final meet of the high school season arrived with Alex going for her 3rd time, but 1st ever individual competition. Not just one, but two individual event plus two relays for the maximum four events. For Taylor it was her first trip being a freshman. It was quite an accomplishment for her to make it in one individual event plus two relays. Ohio has some of the most competitive high school swimming in the country, so these are significant accomplishments.

State is a little different than the rest of the meets during the season. For one thing it is in Canton, OH (just south of Cleveland), which is a three and a half hour drive. Also, it is a two day event. This means the team travels together and stays in a hotel. The meet was Friday (prelims) and Saturday (finals). They left from school about 11am on Thursday as a group. The early departure is so they can get up to Canton and get in some practice time in the pool the will be competing in over the weekend.

Another thing that is different is the format. All of the prelim swims are done on Friday and then all of the finals are on Saturday. Plus this year the Division 1 swimmers swam in the morning, so they swam prelims and finals sessions starting at 9am. As Alex said, it was weird to be doing finals in the morning.

Friday – Prelims

200 Medley Relay Prelims-

The first event was the 200 Medley Relay. Coach Dan switched things up from how he was swimming the relays at Sectionals and Districts, so Alex was now swimming the 200 Medley Relay as the anchor swimming Freestyle. Alex went in with a cluster of the teams fighting for 4th -7th. She managed to catch and pass the girl next to her who had a decent lead when she entered, which placed them 4th in their heat and 11th overall in prelims to qualify for finals. The scoreboard malfunctioned, so we had to wait to get the results and no splits were captured.

Taylor was our next swim in the 100 Fly. She came into the meet seeded 19th, so she was swimming in the first heat. At districts she swam a 1:00.87, which was her best of the high school season, but slower than her PB time of 59.86. She definitely looked a little nervous and she had said she was on her facebook page. Well, she went out and swam a Personal Best time and earned a trip to FINALS with a 58.97. She took the last spot by beating the 17th place person by 3/100ths of a second!

Alex was up next in the 100 Free. This was definitely the big surprise event for her to make State in, since she wasn’t even close to the time that was needed going into this season (or even during the season). She brought it on big time in Sectionals and Districts to show she was a contender in this event coming in to State seeded 15th. At the 50 yard mark it was close all the way across the pool. The 2nd 50 saw the top 4 or 5 pull away a little bit. Alex came in 4th in her heat with a 53.30 which was good enough to qualify her for FINALS seeded 14th.

Here's an example of Alex's quick reaction time as you can see she is almost completely off the blocks ahead of the other girls and already in her streamline.

200 Free Relay Prelims-

The Loveland team came in seeded 14th in this event, but Coach Dan switched up the relay in order to make this one stronger. It proved to be a good move. Alex led off with a 24.86 split. Before this season she had never gone under 25 seconds in a 50, so this was a solid start. Taylor swam the 3rd leg in a PB 25.14. That was good enough to hold them in 5th and close to the other teams. Sammie had a great swim to move the team up to 3rd in the heat and earn a Champ Finals qualification at 8th in prelims. Their 1:39.72 was a NEW Loveland School record.

Alex came into this event seeded 15th after her PB swim at Districts of 59.23. This swim was awesome for two reasons: she finally got under 59 by swimming a Personal Best 58.97 and she tied the girl in the lane next to her. You see them talk about it afterward if you watch the video.

The last event was the 400 Freestyle Relay. As mentioned earlier Coach Dan had shuffled the relay line ups a little. This is true with this relay. By moving Alex to the 200 Medley Relay he shifted our fastest 100 Freestyler off the relay and moved on the alternate. The new line up virtually guaranteed this relay would not make finals. Well, it all was rendered moot when the relay was DQ’d. Our lead off swimmer false started.

All in all Prelims were a success with both girls qualifying for finals in both individual and relay events. Both swam new Personal Best times and were part of a Loveland High School record setting relay. Plus they both were guaranteed to trip to the awards podium as part of the 200 Free Relay with the Champ Finals qualifying swim. Considering last year none of the relays made it to finals this was a huge step up.

Saturday – Finals

This is finals and the level of competition heats up even in the crowd. While it isn’t pretty we did have our die hard fans show their spirit.

200 Medley Relay Finals-

The order of events is always the same so 1st up was the 200 Medley Relay. The relay came in seeded 11th. Alex swimming the freestyle anchor leg with a 24.35 split which is a Personal Best. Their overall time of 1:50.51 was good enough for a 12th place finish.

So our little freshman was swimming in her 1st state meet in her 1st individual event in finals! She swam a 59.29 for the 2nd fastest swim of her life (the 1st being her prelim swim) which put her 14th overall!

Alex continued to swim this event strong with another time in the 53’s- 53.60. I don’t think she was completely satisfied with the swim, but it was good enough for 15th overall at State in an event that I don’t think anybody (including herself) would have anticipated she would even make it to State in. There is some footage at the end of the video of her chatting with Coach Dan.

The Loveland team came in seeded 8th in this event. Alex led off with a 24.82 split- slightly faster than her pr. Taylor swam the 3rd leg in a PB 24.92 her 1st sub 25 split! Hailey swam a little than faster than prelims, too. Sammie had a great swim going 23.88! All that combined for a 1:38.86 – NEW Loveland School recordbreaking the record they had set in prelims by nearly a second and a trip to the awards podium as the 6th place team. Video includes their trip to podium and receiving the medals from their Gold Medalist coach Dan Ketchum. Awesome!

Alex came into finals tied for the 10th seed her PB swim of 58.97. She swam a 59.71 and was looking a little gassed after two very competitive swim days. Still she finished 15th overall which is where she was seeded coming out of Districts.

Afterward the meet was over we all met at Red Robin for one last team activity before driving back to Loveland from Canton. Everybody had a great time celebrating the success of the team. The boys did awesome and finished 7th overall in the team standings with the girl’s team finishing 14th overall. We took some group photos outside. Here is the record setting 200 Free Relay team.

Alex and Taylor swam for Loveland High School at the Southwest District Championship meet this last weekend. They swam at Miami University which is one of the best facilities around where they were swimming against some of the best swimmers in the state. The Southwest District is the most competitive district in the state. The top 4 swimmers are automatic state qualifiers plus there are 11 at-large qualifiers from all 4 districts for a total of 24 State qualifiers per event.

100 Butterfly:

Taylor started things off swimming the 100 Butterfly. Now, I wasn’t sure how she was going to do, since she went to a dance the night before and left the house for the meet with icy hot on her legs and ice on her knees. She came into the meet seeded 10th, so she was swimming in the 2nd to last heat. She swam strong and was 2nd in the heat after the last turn. She was closing fast on the leader coming in the last 10 yards and nearly caught her. She finished 2nd in the heat with a 58.54. Good enough for 8th overall, aPersonal Best time, and less than a second off a Junior National cut. Top 8 receive a medal and a trip to the award podium. Check out the video to see Taylor crush her PB time and receive her medal.

The next event was the 100 Free with Taylor seeded 27th and Alex seeded 5th, so Taylor swam in the 1st heat. She swam another Personal Best time 54.98 to finish 28th overall. Alex was swimming in the last heat against all the powerhouse swimmers. This was her 1st ever start at districts in the final heat. They announce each swimmer and any district and/or state results they have had previously, so it can be intimidating to hear other swimmers announced as previous champions and other accomplishments. Alex was not daunted though and swam a Personal Best time of 52.85! That is nearly 3 seconds faster than her PB from just a few weeks ago. That was good enough for 7th and a trip to podium and State seeded 15th. This was the 1st time ever making the podium at Districts and qualifying for State in an individual event. It, also, is less than half a second off a Junior National cut.

Next up – Alex and Taylor swimming together in the 200 Freestyle Relay. They would swim in the same order with the same swimmers as they did last week at Sectionals. Alex led off with a fast 50 split -24.59 which is a Personal Best 50Free (to put that in perspective it is 2/10ths of a second off a Junior National Cut and the Loveland School record) putting them in 4th. Taylor held the position with a 25.36. Dani gave up some ground with her sister going in 6th. Sammi managed to make up some ground to finish 5th. The relay swam a 1:39.86 setting a NEW Loveland School record by 2 seconds and earning a trip to State.

Alex was up right afterward in the 100 Back. Now, she came in seeded 2nd, but we know there were a few powerhouse girls who did not swim close to PB times at Sectionals. Still with Alex starting in the middle lane you could see the nerves as they announced the swimmers. She got off to a fast start, but after the 1st 50 you could see some of the girls in the outer lanes assert their speed. Still Alex swam a Personal Best time of 59.23 to finish 7th earning another trip to the awards podium and a spot at State seeded 15th. She is close to a Junior National cut which is 58.59.

The last event for the girls was the 400 Free Relay. Once again the Dschaak girls were teamed up swimming the last two legs. Alex went in with the relay in 7th. While it wasn’t her fastest 100 Free split (53.80), it was good enough to get the team into 6th place. Taylor swam the anchor leg and delivered one of her fastest 50 splits (54.68), but was just out touched at the finish with the team placing 7th. Their 3:38.36 time earned them another State qualification, a trip to the podium, and a NEW Loveland School record.

Alex and Taylor swam in the Ohio Southwest District Sectional Meet at Mason (Feb. 13) for Loveland High School. The qualifiers advance to the District Meet on Feb. 20. The Sectional Meets for the SW District are swam at 4 different sites. The top 2 swimmers from each site automatically qualify for Districts plus 26 at large qualifiers (based on time) for a field of 32 swimmers per event at Districts. For Relays there are 16 at large relays in addition to the 2 automatic qualifiers per site for a total of 24 per relay event. Alex and Taylor competed at the Mason site which was the most competitive by far of the four sites.

The first event for Taylor was the 100 Butterfly. She was seeded 14th, so she was swimming the 2nd to last heat. Her seed time was from her fastest high school time this season (1:01.81), but went under a minute last year at age group Junior Olympics (State). She got off to a good start and had solid lead over all the girls near her. She was in Lane 7 and a girl in Lane 2 was leading slightly, but I am sure she could not see her. She continued to swim strong the 2nd 50 yards and finished 2nd in her heat with a 1:00.87. Her best time of the season. That placed her 8th at the Mason site and she goes to Districts seeded 10th overall.

The next event was the 100 Freestyle which both Alex and Taylor were swimming. Taylor was seeded 19th and Alex 13th. That put Taylor in the the 3rd to last heat and Alex in the 2nd to last.

Taylor talking to Coach Mike before her 100 Free swim.

The 100 Free was Taylor’s last individual event. Taylor got off to a good start and led the 1st 75 yards. Her last turn was not the best and two of the girls were dead even with her coming out of the turn. She swam strong to the finish. She finished her heat 3rd. One girl beat her by 1/100th of a second! Her 56.12 time was not a personal best, but was her best of the high school season. She finished 16th at the Mason site and is seeded 27th for Districts.

Alex swam next. She was swimming in Lane 2 as one of the slower seeded girls in her heat. She came off the blocks and immediately grabbed the lead. After the 1st 25 she already had a solid lead which she continued to build the next two laps. She made the last turn with a full body length lead over the next girl which she held all the way to the finish. She destroyed her previous personal best time of 55.65 with a time of 53.78! She won her heat, finished 4th at the Mason site, and is seeded 5th at Districts. It was one awesome swim and a heck of a way to start the meet for her.

100 Free VIDEO- Alex: I apologize for the quality for this video upfront. Alex was swimming in lane 2 which was partial obstructed and I moved during the 1st 25 so there is some jerkiness to the video. High Quality [CLICK HERE], Low Resolution [CLICK HERE]

Alex talking to Coach Dan Ketchum after her 100 Free swim

After the 100 Freestyle the girls were swimming together on the 200 Free Relay team. We called this relay the “sister act” as Alex and Taylor were leading off and Dani and Sammi Wheeler were swimming 3rd and 4th legs respectively. Alex lead off with a 25.02 split (a personal best in the 50 Free!) and gave the girls a slight lead. Taylor was in the water next and it was a three way tie by the time she broke out from her start. When she hit the wall the team was in 3rd and Dani dropped back to 4th. Sammi swam a 25.04 to hold 4th place. The relay goes to Districts seeded 7th.

The 100 Backstroke was next with Alex swimming her last individual event. She was seeded 3rd. Swimming next to two very fast swimmers. She got off to a great start and it was pretty much a 3 way race by the 1st turn. Alex stayed strong the entire race and finished 2nd with a Personal Best time of 59.92! This her 1st time breaking the 1 minute mark which she has been trying to do for the last two years, so this was a huge accomplishment. She goes to Districts seeded 2nd!

100 Back VIDEO- Alex: High Quality [CLICK HERE], Low Resolution [CLICK HERE] if you want to download videos and not use You Tube.

Taylor swimming freestyle.

The final event was the 400 Free Relay with Alex and Taylor again swimming together on the relay. This time they were anchoring it with Alex swimming the 3rd leg and Taylor swimming the final leg. Personally, I would next have Alex swim lead off as she is motivated to swim fast swimming towards the end either chasing to catch people or trying to hold a lead. Well, she went into the water 5th and a body length behind 4th. She was attacking from the start and after her 1st 50 she had caught the 3rd and 4th place girls. By the time she finished her 100 she had nearly caught 2nd place with her very fast 53.42 split (another Personal Best). Taylor entered the water in 3rd and swimming against the other teams best girls. She swam a solid 55.80 split to hold on to 4th overall. The relays goes to Districts seeded 5th swimming a 1:38.

Both girls had good meets. Taylor continued to swim best times of the season. She did not break out her speed suit as she is saving that for Districts and State. Alex had a great meet with multiple best times and breaking through some serious time barriers: under a minute in the 100 Back, under 54 in the 100 Free (which was a Sectional cut). She has now swam Sectional (USA Swimming Sectional) qualifying times in three different events this season.) She swam some awesome splits in her relays, too. Districts should be fun.